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Mario Balotelli's agent Mino Raiola speaking to SKy Italia: "With Balotelli the value of Serie A grows by 50%, that of the Premier League diminishes by 50%. He also claimed English journalists will now be worried about their jobs because they won't know what to write about anymore. The man's a charmer."

Mario Balotelli's agent Mino Raiola speaking to SKy Italia: "With Balotelli the value of Serie A grows by 50%, that of the Premier League diminishes by 50%. He also claimed English journalists will now be worried about their jobs because they won't know what to write about anymore. The man's a charmer."

SPURS THINK FACTORY
Diminutive attacking midfielder/wing forward prospect Alex Pritchard heads to Peterborough on loan for the rest of the season. No word on whether he signed a new contract/extension as part of the deal.

SPURS THINK FACTORY
Gomes moves to Hoffenheim on loan for the rest of the season. He's still got a year left on his Tottenham contract, but I reckon we've probably seen the last of the Octopus in a Spurs shirt. I for one will miss him terribly.

Beckham was asked precisely how much will be donated to charity on his behalf. He replied: "A very good figure ... that's one thing that we're very excited about, to be able to give a huge sum to a children's charity in Paris is special." Sitting beside him, Leonardo explains: "We are going to arrange that, we haven't yet had the time to organise everything. We just agreed on the concept and we will inform you all when it has been finalised." Lots of folks wondering whether this is some wheeze to enhance the reputation of PSG and Beckham while lightening taxable income. I don't know, but your inquisitiveness is admirable.

We're not the only ones cynical about Brand Beckham. From The Guardian's transfer blog.

Walcott and Bale are very different players to me. Neither can do what the other can and thus don't see the comparisons as purely apples to apples.

With that said, Bale is clearly the higher upside player (I think mainly as a result of unmatched size and athleticism) and I doubt anyone in the world would trade him for Walcott.

It somewhat reminds me of the Lebron vs. Carmelo argument win they first came out (remember that? what a laugh!). Lebron's unmatched physical gifts far outweighed any current skill deficits he may have versus Carmelo and, in time, he was able to close those gaps for the most part as well. I see the same outlook for Bale vs. Walcott.

Well, Man City is at least good. Fulham...eh, who gives a crock about Fulham?

I just mean in sense of clubs that lose money with no hope of getting it back. Whether Man City is good or not seems besides the point in the context of if their business model makes sense. It clearly doesn't make any business sense but I don't think profit is what they're after. That sums up QPR pretty well, too.

Roma put Big Stek on a plane to complete his loan deal to Fulham without realizing they only had about half an hour left in the Italian transfer window to procure a replacement. Oops. I hope Maarten enjoys his whirlwind jaunt.

It clearly doesn't make any business sense but I don't think profit is what they're after. That sums up QPR pretty well, too.

I think QPR is a bit different currently given that they are at significant risk of relegation. Relegation could destroy them - there's a certain kind of economic rationality to taking an already unsustainable balance sheet and making it worse, when the alternative is Portsmouthing.

I think QPR is a bit different given that they are at significant risk of relegation. Relegation could destroy them - there's a certain kind of rationality to taking an already unsustainable balance sheet and making it worse, when the alternative is Portsmouthing.

With the huge difference being that Tony Fernandes is genuinely ridiculously wealthy and not a money launderer posing as being ridiculously wealthy.

I think it's hilarious that a lot of Spurs fans have grown to hate him. It's not his fault this transfer never happens and that Spurs come back in for him every window. I do think Spurs need to move on if it doesn't work out again. It's clear Inter are waiting for a club with deeper pockets to come calling. Good luck to them.

What the hell happened in 2008? There was a big jump that year that seems to have held up (though this year is a bit down making my point a bit less meaningful). Was there a rule change that kicked in or a new TV contract or something?

Roma put Big Stek on a plane to complete his loan deal to Fulham without realizing they only had about half an hour left in the Italian transfer window to procure a replacement. Oops. I hope Maarten enjoys his whirlwind jaunt.

Evidently he's still in the air and doesn't know the deal is off yet. Can we call this a Reverse Berbatov?

Freiburg news! They're are signing Hendrick Zuck from Kaiserlautern. I have no idea who he is but I'm happy for some Freiburg news! This has been your Freiburg news moment.

Attacking midfielder, mostly plays on the left, but is ambipedal, so can play elsewhere if needed. Good technically, but fairly raw still, could use some more stamina, as he seems to fade late in games, when not subbed. And I have seen maybe 2 of his matches, plus some Zweite Liga highlights, so the probability of me talking out of my ass is pretty high, but it's the internet, so whatever.

In Freiburg's 4-4-2, I assume he will mostly share time on the left with Caligiuri, who against all odds is German, and has been pretty awful. With maybe the occasional spot service on the right for Schmid, who against all odds is French, and has also been not good.

[1668] - I always WANT to panic, but I really don't think such a move happens now, with them sitting 1 point out of 4th place. But that's why I have 4 tabs open on my browser on soccer sites right now....

Yeah, that sounds like last-minute bullshit. Read somewhere else that the reports are coming from a newspaper owned by PSG, so it's most likely either an offer sure to be rejected or a bit of hyping up the fans.

Okay FPH, give a synopsis on how you think Mohamed "Medo" Kamara is going to do in his big move from Partizan Belgrade to Bolton. Is it going to be like for like, with Jay Spearing being replaced by an Islamic, Sierra Leonean version of Jay Spearing? Or do we have something different to expect.

Okay FPH, give a synopsis on how you think Mohamed "Medo" Kamara is going to do in his big move from Partizan Belgrade to Bolton. Is it going to be like for like, with Jay Spearing being replaced by an Islamic, Sierra Leonean version of Jay Spearing? Or do we have something different to expect.

They play the same position, other than that they are polar opposites. Am mostly familiar with him from his Helsinki days, but he is a much better passer than Spearing. Main concern is if he can deal with the physicality of the EPL. His defensive game tends to rely more on vision and intelligence, and picking out opponents passes, than being a PITA like Spearing. Though he is pretty good at winning headers too.

And interesting side note: He lost both his parents at age 7 due to the civil war in Sierra Leone.

So much cross information about Leandro. Some reporters saying it's dead, some reporters saying the Inter board is meeting about it right now as Spurs have increased their bid. Spurs ITK's are split 50-50, too. 4 hours to go!

I know I'm fully indoctrinated as a Spurs fan as I just assume that even if he signs now he will be crap.

'Arry had him on his squad and never played him, because he's terrible.

You are misremembering, sir. Jenas was ahead of Sandro on the pecking order until inuries forced 'Arry's hand. That said, Jenas really isn't very good. As bad as he looks on tv he's even worse in person. Mrs. Shooty even noticed how much slower he was than other players a couple of years ago.

edit: Let's also remember that Jenas played in the 3-1 win over Inter at the Lane. Legend!

Can anyone explain or post a link about why soccer has transfers rather than trades? What is the "Moneyball" style strategy? A youth academy producing players to sell off and use the proceeds to buy expensive established players?

I would not be at all surprised if the Damiao stuff is completely fabricated/recycled by the sports media outlets in order to help retain eyeballs over the course of the evening. Advertisers paid good money for those spots on SSN, you know.

So how good could/would this Damiao fellow be? I honestly have not followed him at all.

Imagine Steven Fletcher with the technical skills of a Brazilian midfielder. He's a big, strong center forward who is good in the air, can take a defender on with the dribble and is very technical in and around the box. He's also very good at involving other players on a move. He's no sure thing like a Neymar so I think the 16 to 19 million (depending on who you believe) Spurs are offering is fair, especially since no other clubs of note have made an offer. If Inter want to keep him to achieve their own ambitions, then fair play to them, but I don't think Spurs are low-balling them at all. He's their Modric, basically.

I would not be at all surprised if the Damiao stuff is completely fabricated/recycled by the sports media outlets in order to help retain eyeballs over the course of the evening. Advertisers paid good money for those spots on SSN, you know.

Twitter crashing a few times today was the best thing that could have happened for them.

What time, locally, does the window close? If it's at midnight they're missing out on it being a premium television event.

Jermaine Jenas has been doorstepped outside Loftus Road because the doors are locked to the stadium and the poor sap has to stand around outside. Perhaps Harry Redknapp has had a change of heart. "I'm signing for a top club," says Jermaine. They're actually bottom, but ho hum.

Can anyone explain or post a link about why soccer has transfers rather than trades?

History and European law basically. Teams legally can't simply assign a player to a different team against the players will. They have to negotiate a new contract with the player. For every player you add, that's 2 more parties that can muck up the trade. Also it can be difficult for teams to find trading partners that match up, especially for lower level teams, dealing with the big clubs. Money is just... simpler.

What is the "Moneyball" style strategy?

Buy all the French players.

Same as in baseball really, find undervalued assets. In football that is mostly scouting the less exposed players, similar to Latin American scouting in baseball. Youth academies can be productive, but the impact is typically much less than in baseball, since there are no indentured servitude contracts for youth players, and the players have so much more power.

As far as I can tell, neither of them are at all related to former USMTN stalwart Paul Caliguri, who spent more than five years playing in Germany in the late 80s/early 90s (HSV, Meppen, Rostock, Freiburg and St. Pauli). He actually won the last ever DDR Oberliga with Rostock in 1991.